Dutch Grocery Webstore To Buy 2,000 Electric Delivery Vans In Coming Years

30.03.2017

Elektricni auto — Photo-ilustration: Pixabay

After having received €100 million in funding, Dutch online grocery store Picnic just announced aggressive expansion in the years ahead, including the procurement of a staggering 2,000 electric delivery vehicles.

Picnic, a young company operating in the Netherlands, seems to have reinvented grocery shopping in a way that changes pretty much everything about it for the better. Instead of having to go to a store, one can order online using Picnic’s App, after which your groceries will be delivered for free within a one-hour timeslot of your choice. This happens, no less important, by an electric delivery vehicle, meaning air pollution or carbon emissions will not leave its tailpipe (well, it doesn’t have a tailpipe).

As the startup doesn’t have to maintain a physical store, it can offer its delivery service for free, while even charging a lower price than its competitors. The online supermarket literally guarantees its products cannot be found anywhere cheaper. When Picnic just started its operations back in September 2015, I wrote an article about it here on CleanTechnica. In that article, I elaborated on Picnic’s business model, potential, and practices. The company has been growing at a remarkable pace ever since.

Starting off with 150 customers 1½ years ago, Picnic now serves over 30,000 households. It made €30 million in total revenue in 2016. Picnic is currently only operating in several cities in the middle of the country, but is about to expand to cover almost all of the Netherlands in the coming 3 to 5 years. For that, the company requires vast sums of capital, part of which it already attracted in the form of a €100 million investment by privately owned private-equity fund NPM Capital. The money will be used to erect 5 new warehouses and 70 distribution hubs, hire 2,000 employees this year alone, and expand its current fleet of electric delivery vans to what will probably become the largest EV fleet any company has ever owned — in fewer than 5 years, Picnic wants to put 2,000 electric cars on Dutch roads.

Picnic operates “E-Worker” commercial utility vans it bought from the French company Mega, which states its EVs have a range of roughly 110 kilometers on a full charge. That’s enough to operate in densely populated areas, but not sufficient to extend delivery service to rural areas. Mega has now rebranded itself as Goupil and no longer offers the exact model Picnic currently uses on its website. Whether this means Picnic will have to procure somewhat different vehicles remains to be seen.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Changing Weather Patterns Are Trapping Pollution over Chinese Cities

30.03.2017

While China has become a world leader in the fight against global warming, its severe winter air pollution has worsened, likely as a result of changing atmospheric circulation caused by climate change, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

While emissions are decreasing in China, the winter haze is not improving “because of a very rapid change in the high polar regions where sea ice is decreasing and snowfall is increasing,” said Yuhang Wang, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and author of the research. “This perturbation keeps cold air from getting into the eastern parts of China, where it would flush out the air pollution.”

The scientists studied these effects in the East China Plains — where Beijing is located — during the winter of 2013, when instruments measured high levels of particulate pollution. These are tiny particles in the air that reduce visibility and can travel into the lungs.

Exposure can produce short-term health effects such as eye, nose, throat and lung irritation, coughing, sneezing, runny nose and shortness of breath, and also can exacerbate more serious conditions, such as asthma and heart disease. In a separate study, also released this week, scientists studying air pollution in China estimated that tighter air quality controls could prevent 3 million deaths each year.

Long-term air quality measurements aren’t available in China, so the researchers had to piece together estimates based on visibility measures and satellite data. To analyze the historical records, they created a new Pollution Potential Index that used air temperature anomalies and wind speeds as a proxy for ventilation conditions over eastern China. Wang said this paper is the first to connect sea ice and snowfall to localized air pollution.

“As emissions were reduced, the ventilation condition worsened,” he noted. “It shows that improving air quality is a complex process and sometimes unforeseen factors require a doubling up of the efforts.”

Sarah B. Kapnick, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory, and who was not involved in the study, called the research “novel for identifying how a large-scale event, low sea ice, coupled with a regional event — snow in Siberia — contribute to altering regional circulation — the East Asian Winter Monsoon — to create conditions ripe for extreme pollution.”

But Kevin E. Trenberth, a scientist with the climate analysis section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who also was not involved in the study, cautioned against concluding that climate change was responsible for the anomalous conditions. “Yes, atmospheric circulation matters a lot, and it varies from year to year, and can indeed worsen pollution, or improve it,” he said, adding that a specific link to climate change “seems highly speculative.”

“We know that a lot of variations occur for natural reasons,” said Trenberth. “The effects of Arctic sea ice may be present in late summer, but not so much in winter, largely because in winter the Arctic Ocean is covered with ice.”

Wang said that the impact of global climate change may be unique to China because of its geography and sensitivity to changes in atmospheric circulation. The study results should prompt China to continue to combat climate change. “In this case, emission reductions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases help,” he said.

The researchers examined sea ice, snowfall and large-scale weather patterns. Their analyses found correlations between stagnant air conditions and Arctic sea ice — which reached a record low in the fall of 2012 — and snowfall in northern Siberia, which had reached a record high earlier in the winter. They then used atmospheric models to study how those factors changed large-scale circulation patterns and pollution over eastern China.

Wang said that dwindling sea ice and increased snowfall move “the East Asian Winter Monsoon to the east, decreasing wind speeds and creating an atmospheric circulation that makes the air in China more stagnant.”

The winter of 2017 saw the same factors, with low levels of Arctic sea ice in September 2016, high snowfall and severe haze. Wang says those factors are likely to continue as climate change disrupts the normal structure of the atmosphere.

Wang said he plans to continue the study using new data from China’s air quality monitoring network. “Despite the efforts to reduce emissions, we think that haze will probably continue for the future,” he said. “This is partly climate-driven now, so it probably won’t get much better in the winter. Emissions are no longer the only driver of these conditions.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

UK Breaks Solar Energy Record on Sunny March Weekend

30.03.2017

Last weekend’s sunny weather was not only good for beers, barbecues and bees, but also drove solar power to break a new UK record.

For the first time ever, the amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses in the afternoon on Saturday was lower than it was in the night, because solar panels on rooftops and in fields cut demand so much.

National Grid, which runs the transmission network, described the moment as a “huge milestone”. The company sees the solar power generated on the distribution networks – or local roads of the system – as reduced electricity demand.

The sunshine meant that solar power produced six times more electricity than the country’s coal-fired power stations on Saturday.

Continued good weather saw solar power generate significant amounts of power on Sunday and Monday too, when it was providing around 15 per cent of electricity generation. Demand on Sunday afternoon was also lower than on Sunday night.

Duncan Burt, who manages daily operations at National Grid, said: “Demand being lower in the afternoon than overnight really is turning the hard and fast rules of the past upside down. It’s another fascinating sign of the huge changes we are seeing in Britain’s energy scene.”

Electricity demand usually peaks around 4pm to 6pm at this time of year, as people return home from work, with demand lower still at weekends. But the early hours of the morning are usually the quietest for the Berkshire control centre that monitors the grid, so a reversal is dramatic.

Chris Goodall, the author of a recent book on how solar power is transforming energy systems, said that, counterintuitively, March is a good time for solar panels in the UK, due to the angle the sun is hitting them and because they operate better in lower temperatures.

“A sunny day between the equinoxes can now produce a peak of around 9.5GW. At weekends, when demand is low, this will frequently mean solar is producing well over 25 per cent of the UK power need. This drives coal almost completely out of the mix, as it did at the weekend, and depresses gas use,” he said.

Goodall said that by weekends this summer, on windy and sunny days he expected fossil fuels could be providing as little as 15 per cent of the UK’s power. That percentage could fall to zero in coming years as new offshore windfarms are completed, he said.

The solar industry hailed the landmark last weekend, and said the government had repeatedly underestimated the technology’s potential.

A spokeswoman for the Solar Trade Association said: “This milestone shows the balance of power is shifting, quite literally, away from the old centralised ‘coal-by-wire’ model into the hands of householders, businesses and communities all over the UK who want their own clean solar power.”

Solar power installations grew dramatically in 2014 and 2015 (pdf), but new capacity largely collapsed in 2016 after the government axed and reduced subsidies.

An independent report, commissioned by the STA, found the UK’s power network could handle four times more solar capacity than there was today without increasing costs for the grid. Other studies (pdf) have also concluded that even a significant expansion of renewable energy would impose only “relatively modest” costs to integrate into the electricity system.

A government spokesman said: “This government wants Britain to be one of the best places in the world to invest in clean, flexible energy. Solar power is a great success, with over 11GW of capacity installed in the last five years that’s enough to power more than 2.6 million homes with clean electricity.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Mayors of London and Paris to Steer New Car Pollution Scoring Scheme

29.03.2017

Plans to rate cars based on the amount of air pollutants they emit in real world driving conditions are being developed in London and Paris, the two cities’ Mayors jointly announced today.

Sadiq Khan and Anne Hidalgo said more stringent emissions scoring systems for new road vehicles would help consumers make better informed choices about the environmental impact of the cars they drive and help improve air quality in the two capitals.

They argue a new scoring system is needed to “prevent car manufacturers from exploiting loopholes in existing labelling schemes” and “put an end to the smoke and mirrors that have been employed in official emissions tests”.

Current vehicle scoring schemes, such as EU exhaust standards, only regulate certain air pollutants, CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency, and simply require vehicles to meet standards in laboratory conditions.

Yet actual emissions from cars on the road have been shown to be up to 15 times higher in comparison to lab conditions, according to the Mayors.

As such, the two city administrations plan to develop new vehicle emissions scoring schemes that will allocate each model of car with a score based on all of the air pollutants the vehicles release during real-world, on-road conditions.

Both Mayors have said they plan to then make the resulting emissions data available online for consumers by the end of 2017.

Khan said the scheme would provide Londoners with an “honest, accurate and independent evaluation of the emissions of most new cars and vans” and incentivise manufacturers to build cleaner vehicles sooner.

“This scheme is also a fantastic example of how big cities around the world can pool their expertise and their influence to encourage big industry to clean up its act,” he added.

The joint project is being supported by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, of which the Mayors of Paris and London are chair and vice chair respectively. Several other cities, including Seoul, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Moscow, Oslo and Tokyo, have also committed to work to C40 to develop a global scoring system for citizens.

Today’s announcement came after a closed-door meeting held between mayors, senior city officials and representatives of several major car manufacturers aimed at finding ways of accelerating the transition to low emission vehicles and electric cars – the first such effort of its kind, according to the C40 group.

“The technology exists to accurately measure the precise environmental impact of the gas-guzzlers that currently dominate our roads, and leadership by C40 mayors will enable citizens to see it,” said Mark Watts, executive director C40.

The announcement follows the launch yesterday of a new ‘preferred supplier scheme’ for businesses in the West End of London designed to reduce the number of polluting vehicles entering the area each day, thereby cutting congestion and improving air quality.

Source: businessgreen.com

Australian Rooftop Solar Installs Are Up 43% In 2017

29.03.2017

A summer of record high temperatures, heat waves and unplanned electricity outages appears to have put a rocket under the Australian rooftop solar market in 2017, with installations at end of February nearly 50 per cent up on the same time last year.

According to the latest monthly insights report from SunWiz – based on data from Solar Choice – February was an excellent month for solar PV growth, and registrations have been clocked at 43 per cent better than 2016 YTD, driven largely by residential installs.

The February rebound marks the second best month for solar PV installs in Australia since 2013 – the best month since 2013 being December 2016.

For both those months, market growth was no doubt spurred by consumer concern and frustration, as peak power prices soared, and record-breaking heatwaves combined with fossil fuel outages to cause black-outs and load-shedding.

As we reported here on Thursday, this trend is evident in data of the final few months of 2016 in South Australia, following the statewide blackout event there in September.

In an analysis of Clean Energy Regulator data, Solar Citizens noted that monthly solar installation rates jumped 17.65 per cent from October to December, compared to installation rates from January till September.

But as the chart below shows, growth in rooftop solar installs has not been limited to South Australia, with all of the major states rebounding, while Western Australia remained fairly steady, consolidating its position as third-largest installer, behind Queensland and NSW and ahead of Victoria.

Commercial solar, which SunWiz notes is traditionally quieter over the summer holiday period, continues to grow in the minor states and territories, the report says.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Trump has Launched a Blitzkrieg in the Wars on Science and Earth’s Climate

29.03.2017

Klimatske-promene — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Yesterday, Donald Trump signed an executive order taking aim at America’s climate policies. On the heels of a report finding that the world needs to halve its carbon pollution every decade to avoid dangerous climate change, Trump’s order would instead increase America’s carbon pollution, to the exclusive benefit of the fossil fuel industry.

One part of the executive order tells the EPA to review and revise (weaken) its Clean Power Plan and methane regulations. However, revising these regulations isn’t so simple. It requires proceeding through the same years-long rulemaking process the EPA used to create the rules in the first place. This involves considering the scientific evidence, crafting draft rules, responding to millions of public comments, and defending the new plan in court. Environmental attorneys are confident “this is another deal President Trump won’t be able to close.”

A second part of the executive order tells the EPA to ignore the government’s estimated price on carbon pollution. The Republican Party wants to lower the current estimate, but most evidence indicates the government is dramatically underestimating the cost of carbon pollution. Trump gets around this inconvenient evidence by ordering the EPA to simply deny the existence of those costs.

A third part of the executive order ends a moratorium on new coal leases on public lands before a review is completed to determine if taxpayers are being shortchanged due to the lands being sold too cheaply. Environmental groups are set to immediately challenge this order. Regardless, lifting the moratorium would have little effect on coal production or mining jobs.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt would undoubtedly be happy to follow Trump’s orders. In his previous job as Oklahoma Attorney General and fossil fuel industry puppet, one of Pruitt’s 14 lawsuits against the EPA was aimed at the Clean Power Plan. However, the Clean Air Act requires the government to cut carbon pollution. Trump and Pruitt may not like it, but the law, scientific evidence, and public opinion fall squarely against them.

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump released his first proposed budget, and it’s also fiercely anti-science and anti-climate.

Among other cuts, it would slash nearly one-third of the EPA budget, hundreds of millions of dollars from the NOAA research budget, and terminate four NASA Earth science missions as part of a $102 million cut to the agency’s Earth science program.

The budget even goes as far as to propose eliminating Energy Star – a purely voluntary program that helps companies certify energy efficient products, saving Americans money while cutting carbon pollution in the process – possibly out of pure spite for the climate.

Trump’s anti-science and anti-climate agenda doesn’t come as a surprise; before he even took office, there were early signs that Trump would put public health at risk by scrapping climate and other environmental policies. He began by nominating numerous anti-climate, pro-industry individuals to powerful positions in his administration. Those appointees quickly made their influence known, launching an inquisition into Department of Energy staffers who had worked on climate change, trying to gag government scientists, and scrap the EPA climate webpage.

In the face of public outcry, the Trump administration retreated on these fronts. But they regrouped, and over the past several weeks have surged forward with a rejuvenated attack on climate science, environmental protection, and the future of our planet and its inhabitants, to the benefit of big polluters with big wallets. Meanwhile, a Washington Post analysis found that Trump has moved to fill just one out of 46 key government science and technology positions. And for the position of presidential science advisor, he seems to only be considering climate deniers.

With its new administrator Scott Pruitt confirmed by Senate Republicans, “EPA” now seems to stand for “Environmental Plunder Agency.” In an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Pruitt sounded more interested in trying to bring back coal jobs than in protecting the environment. To that, America’s top coal boss said: I suggested that he temper his expectations … He can’t bring them back.

Soon thereafter, the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology Policy mission statement no longer used the word “science.” A few days later, Pruitt rejected decades’ worth of climate science research, giving the following answer when asked on CNBC if carbon dioxide is the primary control knob for the climate:
No, I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do, and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. So, no, I would not agree that’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.

Pruitt was wrong on both points – carbon dioxide is the main climate control knob (NASA scientists even published a 2010 paper with those exact words in the title), and there is a 97% expert consensus on this question. Predictably, Pruitt’s comments evoked harsh responses, not just from climate scientists but also from business, military, faith, and conservative leaders and elected officials. For example, leading climate scientist Kevin Trenberth said:
Pruitt has demonstrated that he is unqualified to run the EPA or any agency. There is no doubt whatsoever that the planet is warming and it is primarily due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels … Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and we can demonstrate clearly that the observed warming of the planet would not have occurred without that change in atmospheric composition. These are scientific facts, not opinion.

Pruitt has been filling EPA staffing positions with climate deniers from Senator James “the greatest hoax” Inhofe’s office. Trump recently selected coal lobbyist and former Inhofe advisor Andrew Wheeler to be Pruitt’s EPA deputy chief.

Pruitt also hired Washington State Senator Douglas Ericksen, who actively fought the state’s proposed carbon tax, and who invited an obscure climate denier blogger named Tony Heller to testify before a Washington State Senate committee for 40 minutes. To put that in perspective, invited witnesses are normally given just a few minutes to testify. University of Washington climate scientist Sarah Myhre – an actual climate expert – had spoken to a State House committee two weeks earlier, for 8 minutes.

As the Trump administration unleashed its assault on science and the climate, we learned that huge sections of the Great Barrier Reef are dead or dying, 30 years sooner than expected. Despite the last El Niño event ending nearly a year ago, the first two months of 2017 were the second-hottest on record, behind only the El Niño-amplified 2016, pushing the world into what the WMO calls “truly uncharted territory.” Arctic and Antarctic sea ice are at record-shattering low levels. Research is finding increasingly strong links between climate change and extreme weather. Americans across the political spectrum are now more worried about global warming than at any time in the past 8 years.

Fortunately, Trump’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations will be fought in court, and his budget proposal only tells Congress what he’d like to see. Nevertheless, it’s a dangerous time for America’s leaders to be denying climate change, defunding its scientific research, and unraveling its climate policies. Science always wins in the end, and if we fight it, we will lose.

During the announcement of his anti-climate executive orders, Trump announced, “My administration is ending the war on coal.” Their wars on science and the Earth’s climate, on the other hand, are in full force.

Source: theguardian.com

Tesla, Nissan, and Siemens Sound Alarm Over Europe’s EV Infrastructure

29.03.2017

Tesla elektricni auto — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A partnership of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, NGOs, and energy trade bodies have called on EU member states to rapidly accelerate the roll out of electric car and rail infrastructure in order to better support Europe’s low emission transport sectors.

The Platform on Electro-Mobility coalition, which includes leading EV manufacturers such as Tesla and Renault-Nissan and engineering giants such as Siemens, today said EU policymakers needed to accelerate efforts to electrify urban and inter-city transport networks.

For instance, it said a joined-up and accessible network of electric vehicle charging stations – including normal, fast and smart charging options – was crucial for supporting the growing EV sector, with more publicly accessible charging stations needed along major roads as well as in urban areas for both buses and cars.

Moreover, it called for greater flexibility in response to EV connector requirements, in order to encourage tech innovation and ensure drivers have full confidence in the long term viability of their vehicles.

The move follows a $1bn joint agreement announced in November between some of the biggest names in the global car industry, including BMW, Ford and Volkswagen, to build a new ultra-fast EV charging network across Europe in a bid to encourage the mass-market take up of low emission cars.

The calls come ahead of a major upcoming survey of 43,000 people across 52 countries which found that around 40 per cent of drivers would consider buying an electric vehicle for their next car.

However, the Platform on Electro-Mobility today warned that despite member states being required to submit plans for supporting charging infrastructure by the end of last year under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive 2014, around half of EU members have still not done so.

Further support is also needed from member states to help boost provision for EV charge points from buildings, the coalition said, by adding EV charging provisions into the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Nicolas Erb, chair of the Platform, said the EU should set aside more resources to support EV infrastructure, and also called for public and private transport options, from metros to e-bikes, to all be fully integrated into the EU’s future low carbon, smart grid-enabled energy system.

“Europe has a huge opportunity to win on so many fronts with e-mobility,” said Erb. “For a start, we’ll recover the €1bn or so a day Europe currently spends on high-polluting oil; we’ll hugely increase access to mobility; we’ll create high-quality jobs and we’ll save countless lives by cutting air pollution.”

Erb added: “E-mobility may be a quiet revolution but it’s a crucial one. Besides metros and tramways, there are now over two million electric vehicles on the world’s roads – so we are at a tipping point – but we need to change-up a gear to really make it happen.”

The diverse Platform includes more than 20 members, such as the London Taxi Company, the European Cyclists Federation, Solar Power Europe, the European Rail Industry, and Wind Europe.

Marie-France Van-der-Valk, head of Renault-Nissan’s Brussels office, said the electrification of transport was underway and the societal benefits were becoming clearer every day. “It is more important than ever that public authorities fully support the development of a regulatory framework and infrastructure network enabling us to tap its full potential,” she said.

Source: businessgreen.com

AB InBev to Brew Up Greener Beer with 100 Per Cent Renewables Order

29.03.2017

Anheuser-Busch InBev has committed to source 100 per cent of the power it purchases from renewable sources by 2025, making the brewing giant the latest in a string of high profile firms to switch to clean power.

The company announced yesterday that it will shift 6TWh a year of purchased power to renewable sources, making it a major new consumer of renewable energy in emerging markets such as Argentina, Brazil, and India. It expects to source 75 to 85 per cent of its power through purchase agreement with the remainder coming from new onsite renewable energy projects.

The move, which also sees AB InBev sign up to the RE100 initiative, is expected to make the company the largest single purchaser of renewable power in the global consumer goods market.

It calculated that the switch to renewable power will cut its operational carbon footprint by around 30 per cent, delivering emissions savings equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the roads.

“Climate change has profound implications for our company and for the communities where we live and work,” said AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito. “Cutting back on fossil fuels is good for the environment and good for business, and we are committed to helping drive positive change. We have the opportunity to play a leading role in the battle against climate change by purchasing energy in a more sustainable way.”

The company, which owns high profile beer brands such as Budweiser and Corona, also announced yesterday it has started the transition through a deal with energy giant Iberdrola to provide 490GWh of renewable power to its giant Zacatecas brewery in Mexico.

The agreement is expected to increase Mexico’s wind and solar energy capacity by more than five per cent, with Iberdrola building 220 MW of wind energy capacity onshore in the state of Puebla to help deliver power to the site from the first half of 2019.

The announcement was welcomed by investors in AB InBev, who earlier this year wrote to the company urging it to consider switching to 100 per cent renewables.

“In the current political climate, with commitments to mitigate climate change under threat, it is even more important than ever that investors work together to encourage appropriate policy changes in the companies in which they invest,” said Eoin Fahy, Head of Responsible Investing at KBI Global Investor.

“In joining the RE100 initiative companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev are pressing ahead with real and substantive changes to the way they do business. This is clearly in the best interests of the environment and society at large, and – importantly – AB InBev’s shareholders too.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Building Firms Urge Government to Deliver Bold Clean Growth Plan

28.03.2017

Zelena gradnja — Photo-ilustration: Pixabay

More than 30 green construction, heat and energy efficiency organisations have urged Business Secretary Greg Clark to publish the UK’s long-awaited Clean Growth Plan and deliver bold new policies to decarbonise homes and buildings.

In a letter to the Secretary of State coordinated by WWF, leading building firms such as Arup and BAM Construct UK have called on the government to address the gap in its low carbon buildings policies, describing it as one of the weakest areas of government action on tackling climate change.

The letter highlights cuts to government’s home insulations schemes, the demise of the Green Deal, and the 2015 decision to scrap the Zero Carbon Home standard for new buildings. It warns emissions from buildings have remained flat in recent years, while those from other sectors such as electricity generation have fallen.

The group is calling on the government to deliver its long-awaited emissions reduction plan, which is required under the Climate Change Act and had originally been scheduled for publication at the end of last year.

The wide-ranging plan is meant to set out how the government intends to meet emissions reduction targets through to the early 2030s. But the letter watns that without a clear set of policies to decarbonise the built environment, the UK risks over-shooting its statutory climate targets by 23 per cent in 2025.

As such, the industry group is calling for the Plan to provide certainty for the UK’s low carbon buildings sector and to “seize the economic benefits” of utilising improvements in building technology to drive down emissions.

Signatories suggest a national programme to bring all of the UK’s coldest and leakiest homes up to an energy efficiency performance rating of ‘C’ or above could cut emissions and generate 100,000 new jobs in the construction and service industries.

Specifically, the letter urges the government to draw up ambitious policies to encourage householders to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes and better support the transition to low carbon heat technologies through investment in the wider installation of heat pumps and district heating schemes.

Other low carbon building actions recommended in the letter include grants and zero interest loans for home energy efficiency measures and a commitment to the requirement set out in the EU Energy Performance in Buildings Directive that all new buildings must by ‘nearly zero energy’ by 2020.

Gareth Redmond-King, head of energy and climate change at WWF, said the government was failing to deliver the robust and ambitious emissions reduction plan UK businesses need.

“The low carbon economy represents a huge opportunity for UK businesses, so it’s no wonder that they’re desperately looking for longer term clarity that will enable them to invest in the technologies that we know can help to tackle climate change,” he said.

Chris Jofeh, director of global buildings retrofit at Arup, also highlighted the economic benefits of low carbon building policies.

“Decarbonising our buildings, done properly, will stimulate the economy, increase employment, reduce energy bills, enhance the UK’s energy security, and help the UK to honour its climate commitments,” Jofeh added. “This is an opportunity for all of us to shape a better world for future generations.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) declined to set a publication date for its promised Clean Growth Plan, but said it would set out action for cutting emissions across all sectors of the economy throughout the 2020s.

The spokeswoman also highlighted government measures such as minimum energy efficiency standards for private rental properties which are due to come into force in April 2018.

“The government recognises that better energy efficiency can help the transition to a low carbon economy and significantly improve quality of life,” a BEIS statement said. “We’re committed to tackling fuel poverty and our current reforms will help insulate 1 million homes across Britain by 2020.”

Source: businessgreen.com

UK Government Energy Projections Increase Role Of Renewables, Still Behind 2030 Carbon Budget

28.03.2017

Vetroelektrana — Photo-ilustration: Pixabay

New official energy projects published by the UK government this month have surprised many, giving un-looked-for credence to the importance the renewable energy industry can have on the future of electricity network in the United Kingdom.

Specifically, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) projections show a 2025 electricity network dominated by renewable energy and electricity imports — imports which IEEFA analysts believe bolster the idea that regional interconnection can play a vital role in achieving a low-carbon transition for the UK.

However, even though the new government projections include significant reductions in new gas capacity and increased levels of renewable energy with much cheaper prices. According to Carbon Brief, this “consequential change” seems to suggest that the UK government is finally beginning to listen to what the rest of us have known for some time now — that renewable energy technology is only going to continue to fall in price as the years pass by, making it a much more attractive option. Carbon Brief points to a November BEIS report which it says “cut the cost of wind and solar power by 15-30%, both now and in the future.”

These changes have been integrated into the BEIS energy projection model, which also fine-tuned the reality of whole-system costs of integrating variable renewables into the grid.

As a result, the model now predicts new renewable energy capacity is projected to reach 36 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 — 71% more than the 21 GW of new build capacity which was projected in the 2015 BEIS energy projections report. While the report does not break down new renewable energy capacity by type, Business Green says it includes 10 GW of small-scale subsidy-free solar by 2030. The BEIS is also now including an increased role for battery storage, with capacity reaching 3 GW in 2030 and 4 GW in 2035.

Meanwhile, the projections also include 20 GW of interconnection by 2025, up from the 4 GW currently in play. This comes as something of a surprise — not least of all because of the somewhat measly current 4 GW. IEEFA, in a report published earlier this month, suggested the role of interconnection in the UK future electricity mix could reach 12 GW by 2025. According to the IEEFA, the new BEIS projections “seem to assume the completion of more speculative projects, such as a proposed link to Iceland, and its projections are a sign that indeed a more regionally interconnected grid is on the way.”

In fact, it appears as if the new BEIS projections go a long way to assuaging many doubts — though according to Carbon Brief, the UK is still behind on its carbon budget targets through to 2030. Specifically, Carbon Brief reiterates the long-held belief that the UK will fall short on its fourth and fifth carbon budget goals, for the years 2023 through 2032. This is backed up by the BEIS’ own comments:
“There are projected shortfalls for the fourth carbon budget of 146 MtCO2e (range: 103-236 MtCO2e) and for the fifth carbon budget of 247 MtCO2e (range: 207-354 MtCO2e).

However, as the following IEEFA charts show — the first depicting IEEFA’s estimates for growth in the sector, and the second showing the projects made by the BEIS — it’s not all doom and gloom.

“The BEIS projections seem also to play down the energy department’s capacity market bias,” said Gerard Wynn is a London-based IEEFA energy finance consultant. “Its projections see a big decline through the 2020s in two of the main generation technologies presently supported by the scheme, that is, coal and gas. The BEIS sees the main growth in technologies that can be privately funded, such as new interconnection, or supported under other schemes such as renewables and nuclear power.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

IKEA Switches on Affordable Smart Lighting Range and Phone App

28.03.2017

IKEA has announced a new range of affordable, energy-efficient smart lighting products which homeowners will be able to remotely control via their smartphone.

Products in the Swedish home furnishing giant’s Smart Lighting Collection, which arrives in UK stores next month, include LED bulbs, lighting panels and doors which come complete with a new phone app enabling users to personalise and more efficiently manage the lighting in their home.

IKEA said it was the latest step in its ‘Home Smart’ initiative to encourage energy efficient behaviour among more homeowners.

Prices in the range start at £15 and consumers need only change their traditional lightbulbs to TRÅDFRI LED bulbs to immediately begin remotely managing their lighting, according to IKEA.

In the Autumn, the phone app will be updated with an ‘away from home’ function allowing users to set lights to timers, check to see if they remembered to turn off lights while away from home, and remotely turn lights on if their plans change.

The Swedish firm said it had recently undertaken research which found small changes in lighting can have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing and intellectual abilities, with cold lighting reportedly more suited for learning and warm for relaxing.

Helen Akinsete, lighting sales leader at IKEA UK and Ireland, said the range was a response to research suggesting many consumers perceive such home smart lighting technology as too expensive or difficult to understand.

“With IKEA Home Smart we aim to improve everyday life at home by making it more convenient and comfortable,” said Akinsete. “Our first offering, wireless charging, was hugely successful and smart lighting was a natural progression as our second launch. We’re busy exploring new ways of implementing technology in the home and will continue to develop ranges in the years to come.”

Earlier this year, the retailer announced a surge in sales of its sustainable products range, as well as achieving a 90 per cent recycling rate for the waste it produced in the year ending in August 2016. Last month, IKEA also launched a new range of sustainable kitchen fronts made from recycled PET bottles and reclaimed wood.

Source: businessgreen.com

US Scientists Launch World’s Biggest Solar Geoengineering Study

28.03.2017

US scientists are set to send aerosol injections 20km up into the earth’s stratosphere in the world’s biggest solar geoengineering programme to date, to study the potential of a future tech-fix for global warming.

The $20m (£16m) Harvard University project will launch within weeks and aims to establish whether the technology can safely simulate the atmospheric cooling effects of a volcanic eruption, if a last ditch bid to halt climate change is one day needed.

Scientists hope to complete two small-scale dispersals of first water and then calcium carbonate particles by 2022. Future tests could involve seeding the sky with aluminium oxide – or even diamonds.

“This is not the first or the only university study,” said Gernot Wagner, the project’s co-founder, “but it is most certainly the largest, and the most comprehensive.”

Janos Pasztor, Ban Ki-moon’s assistant climate chief at the UN who now leads ageoengineering governance initiative, said that the Harvard scientists would only disperse minimal amounts of compounds in their tests, under strict university controls.

“The real issue here is something much more challenging,” he said “What does moving experimentation from the lab into the atmosphere mean for the overall path towards eventual deployment?”

Geoengineering advocates stress that any attempt at a solar tech fix is years away and should be viewed as a compliment to – not a substitute for – aggressive emissions reductions action.

But the Harvard team, in a promotional video for the project, suggest a redirection of one percent of current climate mitigation funds to geoengineering research, and argue that the planet could be covered with a solar shield for as little as $10bn a year.

Some senior UN climate scientists view such developments with alarm, fearing a cash drain from proven mitigation technologies such as wind and solar energy, to ones carrying the potential for unintended disasters.

Kevin Trenberth, a lead author for the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change, said that despair at sluggish climate action, and the rise of Donald Trump were feeding the current tech trend.

“But solar geoengineering is not the answer,” he said. “Cutting incoming solar radiation affects the weather and hydrological cycle. It promotes drought. It destabilizes things and could cause wars. The side effects are many and our models are just not good enough to predict the outcomes.”

Natural alterations to the earth’s radiation balance can be short-lasting, but terrifying. A 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption lowered global temperatures by 0.5C, while the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 triggered Europe’s ‘year without a summer’, bringing crop failure, famine and disease.

A Met Office study in 2013 said that the dispersal of fine particles in the stratosphere could precipitate a calamitous drought across North Africa.

Frank Keutsch, the Harvard atmospheric sciences professor leading the experiment, said that the deployment of a solar geoengineering system was “a terrifying prospect” that he hoped would never have to be considered. “At the same time, we should never choose ignorance over knowledge in a situation like this,” he said.

“If you put heat into the stratosphere, it may change how much water gets transported from the troposphere to the stratosphere, and the question is how much are you [creating] a domino effect with all kinds of consequences? What we can do to quantify this is to start with lab studies and try to understand the relevant properties of these aerosols.”

Stratospheric controlled perturbation experiments (SCoPEX) are seen as “critical” to this process and the first is planned to spray water molecules into the stratosphere to create a 1km long and 100m wide icy plume, which can be studied by a manoeuvrable flight balloon.

If lab tests are positive, the experiment would then be replicated with a limestone compound which the researchers believe will neither absorb solar or terrestrial radiation, nor deplete the ozone layer.

Bill Gates and other foundations are substantially funding the project, and aerospace companies are thought to be taking a business interest in the technology’s potential.

The programmme’s launch will follow a major conference involving more than 100 scientists, which begins in Washington DC today.

Solar geoengineering’s journey from the fringes of climate science to its mainstream will be sealed at a prestigious Gordon research conference in July, featuring senior figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Oxford University.

Pasztor says that most scientific observers now see the window to a 1.5C warmed world as “practically gone” and notes that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will continue rising for many decades after the planet has reached a ‘net zero emissions’ point planned for mid-late century.

But critics of solar radiation management approach this as a call to redouble mitigation efforts and guard against the elevation of a questionable Plan B.

“It is appropriate that we spend money on solar geoengineering research,” said Kevin Anderson, the deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. “But we also have to aim for 2C with climate mitigation and act as though geoengineering doesn’t work, because it probably won’t.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Samsung Unveils Recycling Plan for Faulty Note 7 Smartphones

28.03.2017

Samsung has officially divulged its plan for sustainably handling the estimated 4.3 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones it was forced to recall last year after numerous reports of battery faults from consumers.

Following pressure from green groups and campaigners, the electronics giant yesterday set out three principles it said would ensure the devices “are recycled and processed in an environmentally-friendly manner”.

The company also said it plans to join the European Union’s R&D and testing efforts “to develop new eco-friendly processing methods” as part of its ongoing commitment to recycling.

The flagship phones were recalled weeks after first being launched on the market last September, forcing Samsung to additionally halt production of the defective devices in order to establish the cause of the battery problems.

However, the company at the time declined to provide precise details of whether the recalled phones and components would be refurbished or recycled, which green groups said would help reduce the environmental impact of the recall.

However, ahead of the launch of its latest smartphone model and the first since the Note 7 on March 29 – the Galaxy S8 – Samsung yesterday set out its plan for dealing with the faulty phones.

In the first instance, the company said the devices would be considered for use as refurbished phones or rental phones where applicable, dependent on consultations with regulatory authorities and carriers.

Then, if that is not possible, salvageable components should be detached for reuse in other products.

Finally, the third option would see Samsung work with specialist companies using “environmentally friendly methods” to extract valuable metals from the phones such as copper, nickel, gold and silver for recycling.

Jude Lee, global senior campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, said the announcement demonstrated Samsung had listened to consumers and campaigners and had taken a major step towards shifting the way electronics are produced and disposed of globally.

But he urged the company to provide more detail on its recycling plan. “While we welcome this news, Samsung must share as soon as possible more detailed timelines on when it will implement its promises, as well as how it intends to change its production system to make sure this never happens again,” Lee said. “The average smartphone in the US is used for about two years, adding to growing piles of e-waste around the world. This is simply not sustainable. Samsung and other IT companies such as Apple should manufacture phones that are easy to repair, refurbish, and upgrade.”

Source: businessgreen.com

UK Nuclear Decommissioning Debacle Costs Government Nearly £100m

27.03.2017

Nuklearna elektrana — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The government has been forced to pay nearly £100m in a settlement with two US companies for mishandling the way it awarded a £6.1bn nuclear decommissioning deal.

Ministers have ordered an inquiry headed by the former boss of National Grid to find out why the procurement process was so flawed. Labour said the payout showed “dramatic levels of incompetence”.

The government body tasked with decommissioning old reactors will also terminate the contract it awarded for cleaning up a dozen of the UK’s old nuclear sites nine years early.

In a written statement, Greg Clark, business secretary, said: “This was a defective procurement, with significant financial consequences, and I am determined that the reasons for it should be exposed and understood; that those responsible should properly be held to account; and that it should never happen again.”

The debacle dates back to a 2012-2014 tender process by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for dismantling 12 sites. They include old reactors at Sizewell in Essex, Dungeness in Kent and Hinkley Point in Somerset, where the UK is building the first new nuclear power station in two decades.

A 14-year deal was awarded to international consortium Cavendish Fluor Partnership in 2014, but the bidders who lost out immediately launched a legal challenge.

On Monday, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said it had settled with US-headquartered engineering companies Energy Solutions and Bechtel, for £85m and £12.5m respectively. Had their litigation cases gone to trial, Clark said the “very substantial costs” had the potential to rise much further.

Energy Solutions had claimed a scoring mechanism had changed at a late stage in the tender process and that there was inconsistency in the way bids were evaluated, among other failings.

Former National Grid chief executive Steve Holliday has been appointed to lead an independent inquiry into what went wrong. The inquiry will look at how the mistakes were made and by who, how the litigation was handled, and the relationship between the NDA and the government departments.

Holliday is expected to report to Clark as soon as possible, and set out lessons to be learned.

The government now has the daunting task of starting a new tendering process for the 12 sites, as the deal with Cavendish Fluor Partnership will end early, in September 2019 instead of 2028. Clark said he wanted to stress the deal was “no reflection” on the performance of the consortium, which will continue clean-up work over the next two years.

The contract is being terminated early because the NDA underestimated the scale of the decommissioning required to clean up the Magnox sites, which form part of the UK’s first generation of nuclear power stations.

The share price of Babcock International Group, one of the companies in the Cavendish Fluor Partnership, has fallen by more than 3% since the government announcement.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, shadow energy secretary, said: “By cancelling just two years into a 14-year contact the government has shown dramatic levels of incompetence in the procurement process of this deal.

“British tax payers who stand to lose nearly £100m should be asking themselves not just whether they are willing to put up such ineptitude but also whether the government actually has a well thought out and long term NDA.”

Unions said they were concerned at any potential job losses as a result of the contract ending early.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: “This is an extraordinary situation given the scale and importance of the Magnox contract to the UK nuclear industry.

“The public, and our members, will want reassurance that the termination process and uncertainty over the future of decommissioning will not lead to standards deteriorating or the loss of UK expertise.”

The Unite union said the financial mess involved in awarding the contract showed the clean-up project should be taken into public ownership.

Stephen Thomas, emeritus professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, branded the NDA’s handling of the contract “an immense screw-up.” He added that there would be a further hit to the taxpayer because of the cost of a new tender.

The NDA has an annual budget of £3.1bn, two thirds of which is spent on Sellafield in Cumbria, which stores most of Britain’s nuclear waste.

Source: theguardian.com

SSE and Statoil Buy Out Statkraft’s Stake in Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Pojects

27.03.2017

Statkraft has sold its entire stake in four planned offshore wind projects in the Dogger Bank zone off the North East coast of England, with SSE and Statoil snapping up the 25 per cent share held by the Norwegian energy developer.

UK-based utility SSE and Danish state-owned company Statoil confirmed last week they had each bought up 12.5 per cent of Starkraft’s stake, increasing their equal shares in the development to 37.5 per cent.

RWE subsidiary Innogy SE, meanwhile, still holds the remaining 25 per cent stake in the four projects, which have a combined potential generating capacity of 4.8GW.

Stephen Bull, Statoil’s senior vice president for offshore wind, said Dogger Bank represented a “unique opportunity for the UK to develop secure, sustainable and cost-competitive energy from its world-class wind resource”.

“By increasing our share, we strengthen Statoil’s long-term portfolio materiality and gain additional optionality,” he added. “This is in line with our strategy to gradually complement Statoil’s oil and gas portfolio with profitable renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions.”

Originally developed by the Forewind consortium of Statkraft, Statoil, SSE and Innogy, the four Dogger Bank projects were each granted planning permission in 2015 and under planning terms must begin construction by 2022.

After last week’s transaction, Statkraft has now left the consortium.

The projects are likely to be in the running for upcoming government auctions of price support contracts, which are expected to mobilise a new wave of offshore wind farm development in British waters.

Mike Seaton, director of wholesale development at SSE said the acquisition “represents the next step in the development of the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind development” and that the company “will continue to work alongside the remaining partners in the Forewind consortium to progress these projects”.

The transaction follows recent news that a group of European grid operators plan to press ahead with ambitious plans to build an artificial island in the North Sea to connect more than 10,000 offshore wind turbines and provide a maintenance base for operators.

Source: businessgreen.com

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